Glastonbury canceled again, casting doubt over music festivals
LONAON >> Britain’s Glastonbury festival, one of the world’s most prominent pop music events, was canceled Thursday for a second year in a row because of the coronavirus — sparking fear that large music festivals in Europe will not go ahead this summer.
“In spite of our efforts to move Heaven & Earth, it has become clear that we simply will not be able to make the Festival happen,” Michael and Emily Eavis, the festival’s organizers, said in a joint statement Thursday. “We are so sorry to let you all down.”
Glastonbury is Britain’s largest pop event, held each June at the Eavises’ farm in Pilton, southwest England. About 210,000 people were meant to attend this year, camping at the site for several days (the farm’s cows are moved off-site for the event).
The announcement came as coronavirus deaths were soaring in England, which is in its third national lockdown. Some 1,820 daily deaths were announced on Wednesday. On Thursday,
Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters it was “too early” to say when lockdown restrictions would be eased in England.
For weeks, Glastonbury’s organizers had been warning that the festival was at risk of cancellation because of uncertainties around the pandemic, with insurers unwilling to provide cover. In December, Emily Eavis did a string of interviews with British news organizations in which she asked the government to create its own insurance scheme to cover costs if a last-minute cancellation became necessary.
“What we definitely can’t afford to risk is getting too far into the process of next year, only for it to be snatched away from us,” she told the BBC.
This month, Austria launched an insurance scheme to cover events that cannot be rescheduled, including music festivals. Germany’s finance ministry recently said it has plans to start covering cultural events, but Britain only has a similar scheme for film and TV shoots despite pressure from politicians and musicians.